ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Interesting Manufacturer Question

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Which is why I no longer buy power tools from the big orange store anymore no matter how good the price. I am a professional who needs professional tools. The big orange store also uses different model numbers for their tools, like cordless drivers and sawzalls.

If you buy a Bosch dishwasher from Sears, Bosch will not service it, only Sears. They use different parts. Had a employee by a Bostich nail gun from the box store, had problems with it, took it to a Bostich service center, the service center said take it back where you bought it. He said, even though the model number was the same as their factory gun, they add a letter to the part number. He said the parts in the factory gun will not fit the big box gun. He took it to the big box store, after waiting 8 weeks for repairs, they called him and said that the model had been discontinued, and they would give him a prorated refund. So be very careful about buying tools from the big box stores.

Chances are, if you took it back to Lowes and said you bought it there and it was defective, chances are they will take it back no questions asked (that is their policy) and since you wouldn't have a receipt, they'd give you amerch credit. When I worked at Lowes, we took back everything, even paint that was tinted to the exact color they needed, but they didn't want anymore.

Although morally, I would consider it stealing. However, chances are they'd send it back to the manufacturer or get a manufacturer credit and destroy it on site. In that case, I don't know where I stand morally, I'm on the fence.

In the cases where there are two different products with the same specs and model numbers, I think that the CEOs of both the manufacturer and the store chain should be charged in criminal court with fraud.
Don

From my own personal experiance here in the UK I have found that some (not all) "big box stores" rebrand power tools. It was not unusual for the replacement parts from a brand name tool fit a shop brand and vice-verca.
This is not uncommon in the electrical appliance trade or even the auto trade.
Big company Merlonie own and produce machines under the names Indesit, hotpoint and creda to name just some.
Just like Volkswagon own the brands Audi,Seat and others. So the model numers are relevant.

Also I do not know how the "Consumer act" works in the US but here the law states that "all products must last a reasonble lenth of time"
" in England this is accepted to be 6 years and in Scotland 5 years"
"the retailer is reponsible for this warrenty and your 1 year manufatures garentee is in addititon to you rights"

Hal - perhaps if you have something simmlier in the states this is why you were told to contact the retailer

I can't see that as a possibility unless there was literature saying Model 1243 is constructed with certain features and those features are absent on the cheaper version of Model 1234.

It is for the reasons in this thread that I order my power tools through the shop, the price is about the same as the big box but I feel I have a better chance of getting a better product.

At IBM one of my "other duties as assigned" was parts logistics and I spent a lot of time with parts. We would usually havew several different part numbers for exactly the same part. In some cases it might actually involve a better level of testing or a different stocking strategy for parts destined to different products but as often as not it was simply a price change. If they lowered or raised a part price it was easier to change the number of the new ones than to do the bookkeeping to adjust the price of all the parts in the parts stream.
One of the best kept secrets in the company was what "work" in an emergency. Usually a price change only was going to show up as a substitute part in the system but if it was a product related change it wouldn't "sub" even when the parts were identical.